8 “Retired” Beers We Wish Would Be Brewed Again

He had taunted and tormented me for most of my adult life. Alexander was his name. He was acidic and slightly aggressive they said, but I couldn’t be sure; I had never encountered him in person.

He also wasn’t a man—he was a beer. A legendary Flanders red, in fact, courtesy of Belgium’s famed Brouwerij Rodenbach, Alexander was aged in giant oak vats and macerated with sour cherries. The last batch of him—I mean, it—had been brewed in 1999 and released in 2000, coincidentally right around the time I first got into beer. I never got to sample that final batch.

Thankfully, my prayers were answered, and seventeen years after it’s supposed “final” release, a new batch of Rodenbach Alexander hit the market back in April. It was delightful. (And, around the same time, I finally landed that 1999 bottle as well, for comparison purposes.) This tale of Alexander is not a unique one, unfortunately. So often breweries strike gold with a certain release, sending beer geeks into a tizzy—and then never again do they brew that damn beer.

Did they forget the recipe? Can they no longer find certain ingredients or unique barrels? Did they lose their brewer? Or are they simply trying to create retired legends that are perhaps remembered more fondly in our minds than were the realities on our palates?

Now that Alexander is finally back, here are 8 other beers we wish would dust off their sneakers and jockstraps, and come out of retirement.

Hair of the Dog Dave

Image via Facebook/Hair of the Dog

Last brewed: 1994Closest “active” replacement: Samuel Adams Utopias

First (and only) brewed in 1994, Dave remains a legend some twenty-plus years after first appearing. One of the first truly boozy beers, Dave was a 29% ABV barleywine, brought up to such a high proof via ice-distilling. In fact, Alan Sprints first brewed the beer in order to get folks thinking about the possibilities for the future of his beloved beverage. They never quit thinking about it, as aged bottles still occasionally hit the black market and even get brought out of Hair of the Dog’s cellar for special events—often with a $2000+ price tag. Costly for a usually-oxidized, somewhat “soy saucy,” mere 12 ounce beer in a clear bottle, those lucky enough to have tried it recently have still been wowed. Though would you admit you disliked a beer you just paid nearly $200 an ounce for?

Midnight Sun M

Brewed over ten years ago to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this Alaskan brewery, Midnight Sun’s 1000th batch was an instant hit. Another decadent barleywine—this one Belgian-style and “just” 11.6%—it was sold exclusively at the brewery in Anchorage. Four years ago, bottles were fetching $1500 on eBay, back when the auction site allowed alcohol sales. A more financially prudent decision, though, would probably be to simply opt for Midnight Sun’s widely available Arctic Devil, an equally decadent (English) barleywine that we recently named Seward’s Folly’s best beer.

Cantillon Don Quijote

It almost seems silly to list an obscure Cantillon we wish they would brew again, when the beers they currently do brew are already tough enough to land! Still, for true whale hunters, there are a slew of rare Cantillon lambics they pray the Belgian brewery would revive, like Loerik, Spuyten Duyvil, and Soleil de Minuit (which was somewhat revived last year, in a small amount). Don Quijote is maybe Cantillon’s most-coveted blast from the past, an Italian table grape lambic brewed exclusively for two Florence-area pubs. Less than 300 bottles were made back in 2008, and who knows if any still remain unopened in the world. Rumors continue to abound that a second batch of Don Quijote currently sits in barrels at the Brussels brewery.

De Struise Dirty Horse

Image via Untappd/Keith

Last brewed: 2005Closest “active” replacement:DrieFonteinenKriek

Dirty Horse is a beer of both legend and myth. It was said the original batch of this spontaneously-fermented beer was brewed in 1983 by Urbain Coutteau, who threw it into barrels before totally forgetting about. After a decade in Africa working as a civil engineer, Coutteau returned to his native Belgium to open a brewery (and presumably finally found that old batch of beer sitting in his garage). A “new” 2005 batch was brewed in concert with the release of the extremely-limited 1983 batch, but even the 2005 was too limited for most to land. People still yearn for another, larger batch of this uber-funky, cherry-filled quasi-lambic.

Southampton Black Raspberry Lambic

Image via Untappd/Jonathan F.

Last brewed: 2012Closest “active” replacement: The Lost Abbey Framboise De Amorosa

It’s always strange when a brewery—no longer considered cool—still has a whale out in the world that the geeks pursue with reckless abandon. Such is the case for Long Island’s Southampton Publick House, which actually has a few coveted retired brews from the past, though none more notable than this one. Their legendary former brewmaster Phil Markowski crafted this variation on a traditional framboise, and it is truly one-of-a-kind (which makes finding an active replacement none too easy). Aged in wine barrels for nearly two years, Black Raspberry was released to the tune of only 400 bottles directly from the brewery. Now that Markowski has left to helm the brewing at Connecticut’s Two Roads, this is one retired beer that will almost certainly never be brewed again.

Goose Island King Henry

For whatever strange reason, many of the most coveted retired beers are barleywines. Aged in Pappy Van Winkle 23 barrels which had been previously used to age the 2010 edition of Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout, King Henry was an English-style barleywine with an intense toffee-like flavor. An immediate hit upon release, surely Goose Island would like to produce it again—if only a slew of empty Pappy 23 barrels were sitting around! Still, the Chicago brewery released a second edition of Rare Bourbon County in 2015—that one aged in 32-year-old Heaven Hill barrels—giving us hope that a King Henry the II could be on its way. ‘Til then, their regular bourbon barrel-aged barleywine is pretty damn close, and pretty damn terrific.

Ithaca Brute

Back before New York state had much of a brewing scene, there was Brute. This masterful wild ale, brewed with aged local hops and wheat, aged on oak with Brettanomyces, and then bottle-fermented with three champagne yeasts, was the brainchild of former brewer Jeff “Chief” O’Neil. Since leaving Ithaca Beer Co. in 2011, O’Neil has helped bolster Peekskill Brewery’s reputation and now runs his own Hudson Valley brewery, Industrial Arts. But neither he, nor Ithaca, has ever again brewed Brute, which many old-timers still regard as maybe the best beer in the state’s history.

Flossmoor Station Wooden Hell

Flossmoor Station is not much of a “name” these days, but the Chicago-area brewpub is still cranking out great brews. Still, they’ve never reached the celebrated heights as they did at the end of the aughts with this bourbon barrel-aged barleywine. Rich and almost liqueur-like, Wooden Hell was much ballyhooed upon its release, though memories of it have sadly started to fade, and its appearance at bottle shares these days is quite rare. Good news, though, whale watchers—Flossmoor Station brewed a new batch of Wooden Hell just this August which will be released soon!

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